1. Yellow Face takes place throughout the 1990s up until the “present” – mostly in 1990 until 2006 (when Marcus’ emails stop coming through). Yellow Face covers the story of David Henry Hwang and his involvement in the Miss Saigon white-washing scandal of 1990 and his attempts to satire these actions in a 1992 comedy Face Value. Hwang ends up “mistakenly” casting a white actor in an Asian role in his own play, but convinces the actor to emphasize his false Asian roots but takes it so far as to actually speak for the Asian-American community. Yellow Face focuses on Hwang’s frustration at Marcus’ actions. Yellow Face culminates with Hwang’s own father facing a racially-based federal lawsuit, and the contemporary implications of race and personal identity.
2. The intrusion of Yellow Face is most likely David mistakenly casting Marcus as an Asian-American man,and proceeding to try and cover it up by emphasizing that he is a “Siberian Jew” (meaning he is technically from the continent of Asia). Marcus’s casting leads to their confrontation after the awards gala, Hwang’s mounting frustrations, and the racially-influenced subpoenas from the federal government about “political intrigue”.
3. This is the day that David Henry Hwang decides to tell us about his experiences with struggling to define “race” and his personal identity, through Marcus G’s taking on of a “new face”. This illumates an inner struggle in framing this choice when Hwang’s outspoken critique of the casting of Miss Saigon.
4. State the dramatic question that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
How does Hwang feel about “race” now? He alludes to it, so it this because he is continuously still coping with it?
Does David Hwang actually “save face” in the end? Is his reputation damaged by his miscasting?
5. David’s first want is to represent his community well and publicly criticize the use of white actors in Asian roles, starting with his outcry against the use of Jonathan Pryce in Miss Saigon. David goes even further to deal with this obstacle by creating Face Value as a satire on the issue of race itself and continue to bring it to the forefront. This obstacle is most certainly a “me against society” obstacle, because David is confronting the minority status of Asian-Americans in larger American societies.
A vast majority of David’s obstacles are “me against myself”, as he comes to terms with his arguments through Marcus. Marcus falsely takes on this “face” of an Asian-American because he feels connected to the community, and often rationalizes that it shouldn’t matter “who is saying what needs to be said”, but that it matters that it is being said at all. David’s accusation of Marcus as an ethnic tourist emphasizes his conflict over his internal discussion of race and identity. Marcus G. revealed as a fake character is the embodiment of David’s internal voice and debate on his identity – with society making efforts to define his identity solely by his race. This is something that David himself realizes that he has accepted for so long, and only his father’s end quote about “an Asian man being able to become Jimmy Stewart” makes him realize this.
6. One of the most theatrical moments in Yellow Face would be David and Marcus’s confrontation outside after the AAAA awards meeting, where David calls Michael an “ethnic tourist” who can “put on” an Asian-American façade but not have to face any of the social repercussions of being a racial minority in America. David accuses Marcus of essentially being a “white scapegoat” that the media can celebrate while still failing to change any of their actual opinions on Asian-Americans. I think this is important because it shows David’s conflicting ideas about “race”. David earlier admits that race is a construct that we need to move past, but at this point he emphasizes the need for racial representation in theater. Hwang realizes that race is not “real” biologically, but it is “real” socially and still has to be worked because it is present in daily life and is something he faces.
David’s interview with NWOAOC is also theatrical and reveals the complexities of even discussing race in contemporary America. The manipulation and efforts to avoid discussing race and identity at all are seemingly built in to the contemporary conversations people are allowed to have.
Another theatrical moment would be David’s reveal of Marcus to be a fictional character, and a solely literary device. Marcus is symbolic of the competing ideas of race that David faces inside himself – that many people want to “move beyond race” but still recognize that it is definitive for minority groups, especially within the United States. Marcus is a sort of absurd and frustrating trope, which I think mirror’s David’s own feelings towards “race and identity” perfectly Marcus also could serve as a reference to what Face Value, though it failed during its run, was trying to accomplish – a slightly humorous satire on appearance and race. Revealing Marcus as fictive at the end can serve as David “taking off his face” and reveal that he is still coming to terms with negotiating his identity as an Asian-American and how he wants to present that.
1. Yellow Face takes place throughout the 1990s up until the “present” – mostly in 1990 until 2006 (when Marcus’ emails stop coming through). Yellow Face covers the story of David Henry Hwang and his involvement in the Miss Saigon white-washing scandal of 1990 and his attempts to satire these actions in a 1992 comedy Face Value. Hwang ends up “mistakenly” casting a white actor in an Asian role in his own play, but convinces the actor to emphasize his false Asian roots but takes it so far as to actually speak for the Asian-American community. Yellow Face focuses on Hwang’s frustration at Marcus’ actions. Yellow Face culminates with Hwang’s own father facing a racially-based federal lawsuit, and the contemporary implications of race and personal identity.
2. The intrusion of Yellow Face is most likely David mistakenly casting Marcus as an Asian-American man,and proceeding to try and cover it up by emphasizing that he is a “Siberian Jew” (meaning he is technically from the continent of Asia). Marcus’s casting leads to their confrontation after the awards gala, Hwang’s mounting frustrations, and the racially-influenced subpoenas from the federal government about “political intrigue”.
3. This is the day that David Henry Hwang decides to tell us about his experiences with struggling to define “race” and his personal identity, through Marcus G’s taking on of a “new face”. This illumates an inner struggle in framing this choice when Hwang’s outspoken critique of the casting of Miss Saigon.
4. State the dramatic question that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
5. David’s first want is to represent his community well and publicly criticize the use of white actors in Asian roles, starting with his outcry against the use of Jonathan Pryce in Miss Saigon. David goes even further to deal with this obstacle by creating Face Value as a satire on the issue of race itself and continue to bring it to the forefront. This obstacle is most certainly a “me against society” obstacle, because David is confronting the minority status of Asian-Americans in larger American societies.
A vast majority of David’s obstacles are “me against myself”, as he comes to terms with his arguments through Marcus. Marcus falsely takes on this “face” of an Asian-American because he feels connected to the community, and often rationalizes that it shouldn’t matter “who is saying what needs to be said”, but that it matters that it is being said at all. David’s accusation of Marcus as an ethnic tourist emphasizes his conflict over his internal discussion of race and identity. Marcus G. revealed as a fake character is the embodiment of David’s internal voice and debate on his identity – with society making efforts to define his identity solely by his race. This is something that David himself realizes that he has accepted for so long, and only his father’s end quote about “an Asian man being able to become Jimmy Stewart” makes him realize this.
6. One of the most theatrical moments in Yellow Face would be David and Marcus’s confrontation outside after the AAAA awards meeting, where David calls Michael an “ethnic tourist” who can “put on” an Asian-American façade but not have to face any of the social repercussions of being a racial minority in America. David accuses Marcus of essentially being a “white scapegoat” that the media can celebrate while still failing to change any of their actual opinions on Asian-Americans. I think this is important because it shows David’s conflicting ideas about “race”. David earlier admits that race is a construct that we need to move past, but at this point he emphasizes the need for racial representation in theater. Hwang realizes that race is not “real” biologically, but it is “real” socially and still has to be worked because it is present in daily life and is something he faces.
David’s interview with NWOAOC is also theatrical and reveals the complexities of even discussing race in contemporary America. The manipulation and efforts to avoid discussing race and identity at all are seemingly built in to the contemporary conversations people are allowed to have.
Another theatrical moment would be David’s reveal of Marcus to be a fictional character, and a solely literary device. Marcus is symbolic of the competing ideas of race that David faces inside himself – that many people want to “move beyond race” but still recognize that it is definitive for minority groups, especially within the United States. Marcus is a sort of absurd and frustrating trope, which I think mirror’s David’s own feelings towards “race and identity” perfectly Marcus also could serve as a reference to what Face Value, though it failed during its run, was trying to accomplish – a slightly humorous satire on appearance and race. Revealing Marcus as fictive at the end can serve as David “taking off his face” and reveal that he is still coming to terms with negotiating his identity as an Asian-American and how he wants to present that.